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The technology hacks that will change your online life

We've all suffered a bit of online regret and it's often caused by being overeager with the 'send' button.

Thankfully, Google has developed a function to stop emails that were sent in error from being delivered to the recipient - if you get there fast enough that is.

Gmail's Undo Send offers a maximum 30-second window of opportunity to realise a message is heading to someone it shouldn't and take action to prevent it from landing in the wrong inbox.

And unlike the Outlook recall feature, there's no chance of recipients seeing emails they weren't meant to before a recall has been issued, or people being made aware that someone no longer wants them to see an email.

Fancy a life free of email regrets? Head to the 'Settings' section of Gmail and click on the 'Labs' tab, which offers new and experimental features. There you'll find the face-saving undo feature, created by a kind techie named Yuzo F:

Tick to enable the function and set a window of between five and thirty seconds - daredevils that we are, we opted for 20.

It means that every email you send will have a slight delay, but it's small price to pay to stop your boss from reading that email that was actually meant for your other half.

MORE TECH RESCUE FEATURES WE LOVE:

TIGERTEXT

The text equivalent of Gmail's undo feature comes courtesy of TigerText. Reportedly named after Tiger Woods, following his textual indiscretions back in 2010, it has been dubbed 'the app for spies and cheaters' by Techhive - but it can be used for less dramatic purposes. The app works in a similar way to Gmail's feature and as well as letting users pull back regrettable texts, there's the option to put a time limit on how long they can be viewed for - Mission Impossible-style.

The premise of this phone app is pretty clear from its not-so-subtle title, but as well as stepping in for willpower when it comes to contacting the wrong people, this app also lets you block communication from pesky texters.

UNDO

Another text recall app, specifically aimed at Android users:

FACEBOOK PRIVACY

If you don't want everyone on your Facebook friends list to see a particular status update, make use of the privacy function before you post. It makes your updates visible to only certain friends and there's even an 'only me' option that lets you post items that only you - and maybe a secret audience of private companies - can see.

FACEBOOK'S EDIT POST

Auto-correct has let us down more than once, so we love Facebook's cheeky fix:

DELETE TWEET

Unfortunately, Twitter doesn't have an edit function, but it does allow you to bin a tweet completely with one click:

While the delete button can make tweets disappear from a timeline, it's too late for posts that have already been retweeted or embedded into web copy.